American Economic Journal Economic Policy· 2026Q1
A Matter of Time? Measuring Effects of Public Schooling Expansions on Families
- 1citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Full-day kindergarten expansions increased employment for mothers with kindergarten-age children by up to 24% of their employment growth between 1992-2022.
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Key points
- Full-day kindergarten expansions are analyzed as an implicit childcare subsidy.
- Data spans 1992-2022, using variation in kindergarten day duration across states.
- Full-day kindergarten accounted for up to 24% of employment growth for mothers with kindergarten-age children.
- The study compares children of kindergarten-age to older children to isolate effects.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
We leverage pronounced changes in the availability of public schooling for young children—through duration expansions to the kindergarten day—to better understand how an implicit childcare subsidy affects mothers and families. Exploiting full-day kindergarten variation across place and time from 1992 through 2022 and novel data on state-level policy changes, combined with a comparison of children of typical kindergarten-age to older children, we measure effects on parental labor supply and family childcare expenses. Full-day kindergarten expansions were responsible for as much as 24 percent of the growth in employment of mothers with kindergarten-age children in this time frame. (JEL H75, I21, J12, J13, J16, J22)
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. American Economic Journal Economic Policy, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Gender Studies
Gender StudiesSocial Sciences